Layer 8

Michael Cooney

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The iPhone beater: a $24,500 Vertu communications instrument

By Layer 8 on Thu, 09/27/07 - 4:35pm.

If you thought the iPhone was somehow, cheap, then you may want to look upward. Way up to Nokia's Vertu subsidiary which is selling a $25,400 phone that celebrates Ferrari's 60^th year in the business of making beautiful, unbelievably fast cars. Cars and cell phones, what a match.

Vertu's Ascent Ferrari 60 a hand assembled using top-of-the-line stainless steel and titanium components - it is manufactured with the same screws used in different parts of the car - as well as authentic Ferrari leather and features the distinctive Ferrari Prancing Horse logo. Specifically the Ascent Ferrari 60 is inspired by the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and features wallpapers and ringtones of the car. It supports text and multimedia messaging as well.

The phone comes with a Vertu Aerius bluetooth headset and a valve from a Ferrari F1 car. The phone also comes with a service package which allows the phone to be serviced every six months and have the leather replaced. Only 60 of the phones have been built and they are selling in shops in Paris, London, Hong Kong and Singapore, in case you are in the nationhood. .

The company has also offered the Ascent Ferrari 1947 Limited Edition. To match the year, there's 1947 of the phones being made - each with very little to offer technically beyond Bluetooth, limited memory, four hours of talk time and 270 hours on standby. It has a sapphire-crystal display, stainless steel keys with jeweled bearings, the red and black leather, Ferrari Prancing Horse logo and a scaled-down, high-grade aluminum, Ferrari brake pedal on the back. According to an IDG News Service story, Vertu phones have been spotted in the hands of celebrities such as Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, and Catherine Deneuve.

Incidentally, anyone hoping to save a few thousand bucks by waiting for Vertu to suddenly slash prices like Apple recently did with its iPhone is probably waiting in vain. According to Vertu, a sudden price-cut on these exclusive phones is unlikely. "We don't normally reduce our phones in that way," the company said. "It's a different proposition. I don't think you can compare the two."